


The Moon

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Angst, F/F, spoilers for most recent quests
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 23:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15568464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Linda struggles with the most recent revelations. Fortunately, Meteor knows just who to go to for help. Roo belongs to fieldingfreja.





	The Moon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fieldingfreja (copperheadpony)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperheadpony/gifts).



The celebrations over Elizabeth's grand declaration of finally going to rescue Anne lasted long into the night. Some of the newer Soul Riders, those who had been involved (especially emotionally) in the fight with Ydris, dipped out early, heading elsewhere to drown their sorrows and not being in the party mood. Roo, however, was always down for a good party, and stayed until the final person dropped (which was not her, it was never her, she never dropped). Linda spared her girlfriend a small smile that she didn't see as she sneaked out of the room, passing through the dark green portal into the cooler (and fresher) air in the Secret Stone Circle.

Linda shivered, dipping her hands into her pockets for a moment before hugging herself as the shiver became a shudder. The tears, when they came, felt hot, wrong, sliding down her cheeks as she sobbed in the cold air. Meteor took a step towards her, stretching his neck out in a silent inquiry. Linda clutched his mane, shaking, wrapping her arms around his neck. Meteor snuffled into the hood of her hoodie, playing as though he was looking for sweets. Linda laughed, pressing her forehead to his mane and ignoring the way it made her glasses dig into the bridge of her nose.

"Shall we head to the nearest library? Go for a ride so you can unload? Tie some apples to a clothesline and then spin it so I can catch them?" said Meteor, taking a step back. Linda smiled, though tears still leaked from her eyes.

"You always know just how to cheer me up," said Linda, her voice sounding wet. "But I think... I think I have someone better to unload on now."

"Oh, I see how it is," said Meteor, feigning hurt. "I'm being replaced."

"No! No, you're not being replaced, not like Concorde," said Linda, choking again on his name. Meteor pinned his ears back when she began crying again.

"I'm sorry," said Meteor. "I didn't mean to make you cry again."

"No, it's fine, it's not your fault," said Linda, rubbing her cheeks with the sleeves of her hoodie. "I could do with someone to talk to, though. N-not you, though. No offense, but... I need someone who can give me an outside perspective on this. Someone who can, y'know, tell me if I'm reacting... like a normal person. Not like a Soul Rider."

"I understand," said Meteor. He moved past her, heading for the green portal.

"Meteor, what are you doing? You can't fit in there, it's human-sized," said Linda, watching him.

"I don't need to fit my whole body in," said Meteor.

From inside Fripp's room, the disembodied head of a chestnut horse suddenly appeared through the portal.

"Roo!" Meteor called. "And no, I wasn't trying to say 'boo'. Roo, where are you?" He looked around, straining to see a mop of red hair. But it wasn't red like Lisa's, or even a more strawberry-blonde like Elizabeth’s. It was- there! Over by the alcohol, of course. "Roo!" He tried again, hoping that she'd hear him. When she didn't, he nickered. "Somebody, call that drunken redhead over here."

At last, Roo stumbled over to him, staring at him bleary-eyed.

"The headless horse's head," Roo mumbled, placing her hand on his neck. Meteor blew air in her face and Roo gagged, lurching away and fanning the air in front of her nose. "Well, you certainly smell dead!"

"Would that I could sober someone up with a breath," Meteor muttered. "Unfortunately, that is not in my skillset. Avalon, I know that Fripp keeps several bottles of Sobriety Potion in his room, fetch me one of those."

"We'll need to brew up more of these," said Avalon as he handed the bottle to Meteor. Meteor held it gingerly between his teeth, glad that he didn't need his voice to speak.

"Follow me," said Meteor as he withdrew his head, almost shaking his head when it emerged from the portal. But, remembering what he held, he resisted that urge until Roo stepped out of the portal. "Now, drink this." He shoved his head towards her, and Roo stumbled back a step, blinking.

"Cold out here," said Roo with a shiver.

"Drink the potion," said Meteor, flicking his tail in annoyance.

"This better not kill me," said Roo, uncorking the bottle. She drank it, her face poised to grimace. But instead, a look of shock spread over her features. She stared at Meteor in confusion. "What was that? I feel..." She frowned. "Sober? What the hell?"

"A sobriety potion," said Meteor. "Works every time."

"Way to kill my buzz," said Roo, smacking his withers. Meteor snorted, rearing up slightly. But a movement behind him made him stop horsing around.

"She needs you," said Meteor, moving aside to reveal Linda, who still looked miserable. She tried to smile sheepishly at Roo, though.

"Hi," said Linda, sniffing. "Sorry to kill the mood, I just really need someone 'normal' to talk to about all of this."

"Shit," said Roo, looking at her feet. "I've been so busy worrying about my friends and Ydris, I never considered how you'd be affected. I'm sorry." She rubbed the back of her neck, looking back up at Linda.

"It's fine," said Linda, shrugging. "I hid it well."

"No, I'm your girlfriend, I should be able to see it, I'm an idiot," said Roo, walking towards her girlfriend and hugging her.

"Please don't beat yourself up over it," said Linda. "I just..." She sighed. "I'm just glad you're here." She rested her head on Roo's shoulder, closing her eyes.

"Let's go for a ride?" asked Roo. Linda nodded, lifting her head up.

"Sounds like a great idea," said Linda, smiling.

The portal at the end of the spiral path outside of Valedale suddenly opened, spilling pink light onto the path, and the two riders rode out, side by side.

"Warmer here," said Linda with a grateful smile.

"Or maybe that's just my company," said Roo, giving her a wink. Linda gave a small laugh, feeling lighter already. But then she sobered at the distant whinny of a rambunctious foal.

"I should be happy," said Linda, turning towards Roo as they rode. "I know I should be. The next step is rescuing Anne, and we at least have a Concorde but... I can't help but feel like the Concorde we grew up with is gone. Because he is. And the way Katja worded it, it... it sounded like his death meant nothing. Like it was a mistake, like... he was just a casualty. But oh no, it's fine because he was reborn and now we can make new memories with this new Concorde. But still... what if it was one of us girls?"

"I know," said Roo after taking in all that Linda said and left unsaid. "Reincarnation is nice and all, but he still died. And Anne felt that. Did you... see it?"

"If I'd seen it, we wouldn't have needed to ask Katja," said Linda. She took a deep breath and let it out. "But then I feel bad again because my parents believe in reincarnation, so me questioning it just seems... I dunno." She ran her fingers through her hair, tugging locks of it from her ponytail and braid. "I'd just feel bad asking them about it, like I'm questioning their beliefs. You know? But they're the only ones I can ask, all the druids will say is that it's fine, that Concorde is with us again now in a new form and it doesn't matter. But it does!"

"This has been eating you up for a while, hasn't it?" asked Roo.

"Was it obvious?" asked Linda. Roo nodded.

"You've seemed really stuck on the details lately," said Roo. "The maze thing, then correcting an actual Pandorian on Garnok."

"Facts are my way of coping," said Linda. "When everything else is broken... the stone cold facts never change. Until they do. And normally I'd jump at the chance to question a real, live Pandorian, I'd be fighting Evergray for first dibs but... I'm just too upset, I guess. My whole time as a Soul Rider, I've been told that Garnok is an evil entity from Pandoria trying to break through into our world. That made it easy to fight him. But why couldn't they tell us that Garnok was hurting Pandoria? And that prophecy you told us about, I just... I dunno." She shook her head, more tears leaking from her eyes. "I just don't know, Roo."

"I'm confused too," said Roo. "Trust me, a newbie is confused too, you have every right to be confused."

"And I mean... when I first got my powers, I had a vision of the dam exploding and flooding the town the day before my big show jumping competition with Meteor. As if I wasn't nervous enough! So there I was, in the middle of the night, dismantling a bomb using bits of code that I found scattered all over the dam site, and I didn't know if the code was correct, I didn't know if the numbers were even in the right order, all I knew was that the timer was counting down and I just... I had to save the town." Linda took a deep breath, needing to regain her breath after letting all of that out. Roo leaned over to rub Linda's back.

"This was while you were in school, wasn't it?" asked Roo. Linda nodded.

"That's when this... unhealthy coping mechanism started," said Linda. "I got home after that competition and nobody knew how close they'd come to destruction and I wanted to scream but... instead, I had a homework assignment due. So I threw myself into it. Everything was projects, projects, projects, and if I stopped, I'd collapse and never get back up again. Alex did the same. But with me... I still had to deal with the visions. So I wrote them down and researched the hell out of them and learned how to interpret omens, like a medicine cat. And I'm sorry, I know, you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say that, but that's how I saw it. I was a medicine cat, and it was my job to interpret visions and omens from StarClan. Or... from whatever magic we have, I guess."

"And then Pandoria threw a wrench in your plans," said Roo. "Or Ydris did." Linda nodded.

"Him and Evergray," said Linda, her voice shaky. "It rattled me. So I fell back into old habits."

"Have you been sleeping?" asked Roo. "A decent amount, I mean?"

"No," Linda whispered. "I haven't been sleeping properly since Evergray came into our lives."

"That's months," said Roo. "A year, I think. Linda..."

"I know," said Linda, turning to look at her. "I know it's bad, I know it's not healthy, I know I'm hurting myself by subsisting on energy potions. But I can't stop."

"I'm always here if you ever want to talk," said Roo, taking Linda's hand in her own. "I promise." Their horses had stopped, letting them talk in a patch of moonlight.

"Even if you don't understand?" asked Linda.

"Like you said, you need an outside opinion," said Roo, giving her a gentle smile. "I'll be happy, more than happy, to be that." Linda grinned slowly, tears glistening on her cheeks, and leaned in to kiss Roo. Tenderly at first, but then harder, with more passion. Leading nowhere, especially not while they were both on horseback, but it was the most passionate kiss that Roo had ever had the pleasure of receiving. When she pulled away, her cheeks burned like she'd just had rum, and she could see that Linda's cheeks shared the same darkness.

"Thank you," said Linda. "You've handled all of this surprisingly well."

"I drink," said Roo, shrugging. "Which is about as healthy as what you do, come to think of it."

"None of this is normal," said Linda. "So of course we aren't expected to react normally. Maybe some old texts have some tips on how we can cope, or maybe I can somehow look into the lives of the past Soul Riders. I don't know if or how I can, but it's worth a shot."

"Just promise me that you'll sleep tonight," said Roo, cupping Linda's face with her hand. "Please. I'll even sleep with you, if that's what it takes."

"A human teddy bear," said Linda. "Okay. I'll sleep. Once this coffee wears off."

"Linda," Roo chided gently. "Next time you get in a study binge, I'm switching you to decaf."

"As long as I can switch you to water," said Linda. Roo smiled.

"Deal," said Roo. "Now, let's go somewhere to wind down. How does hot cocoa and a movie sound?"

"Perfect," said Linda, taking one of Roo's hands in her own. "Let's go."

Linda fell asleep leaning on Roo under the blanket about halfway through the cheesy horse girl movie. Roo noticed it, smiling as Linda's breathing deepened and became more rhythmic. It was the first time she'd ever seen Linda sleep. Knowing what she knew now, it was the best thing she'd ever seen.


End file.
